Past Exhibits: > Mark Catesby: Picturing the New World
Mark Catesby: Picturing the New World
Three hundred years ago, an adventurous young Englishman named Mark Catesby ventured to the southern colonies of British North America. Collecting and identifying what he called… the natural productions of the country, he went on to publish his experiences in his monumental book, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas Islands. His description of the flora and fauna from the colonial era is one of the earliest surveys of American natural history. Entirely self-taught, Catesby’s work was solely the product of his own observation and determination. He devoted twenty years of labor to its completion.
